Fired UNH basketball staffer has local ties

NEWMARKET — A University of New Hampshire athletics department staffer recently terminated by the school was reportedly a former basketball coach at Newmarket Junior-Senior High School.

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By Staff reports

seacoastonline.com

By Staff reports

Posted Mar. 7, 2014 at 2:00 AM

By Staff reports

Posted Mar. 7, 2014 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

NEWMARKET — A University of New Hampshire athletics department staffer recently terminated by the school was reportedly a former basketball coach at Newmarket Junior-Senior High School.

According to Foster's Daily Democrat, UNH fired Scott Weitzell, 50, of Newmarket, the director of basketball operations, after allegations he secretly took pictures of the UNH men's basketball team inside the locker room at a Jan. 20 game at the University of Vermont in Burlington.

UNH officials revealed Weitzell's name and some details of the allegations against him at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

Weitzell coached high school and middle school boys basketball at Newmarket for 19 seasons, 10 at the middle school level and nine with the high school team before he was hired by UNH as an administrative assistant for the men's basketball program in 2002.

Newmarket Police Lt. Kyle True told Seacoast Media Group on Wednesday that Weitzell, of 75 Elm St., faces charges of attempting to falsify physical evidence and resisting arrest or detention in Newmarket based on his actions on Feb. 21 at his home, where Newmarket was assisting UNH police with the execution of a search warrant.

"There's an active criminal investigation involving Mr. Weitzell at this time, therefore we will not be making any further comments at this time," True said.

According to the complaints against Weitzell, he is accused of trying to conceal his cell phone because he knew it was part of the police investigation against him. In addition, Weitzell allegedly refused to put his hands behind his back when police attempted to arrest him.

In a press release from earlier this week, UNH said the terminated employee was a part-time member of the athletic staff.

"The staff member was placed on administrative leave and subsequently terminated. The University of New Hampshire takes any and all allegations of misconduct by a member of our community very seriously. While we cannot talk about the specifics of ongoing police investigations, UNH is cooperating fully with all law enforcement agencies," the press release stated.

UNH administrators on Tuesday said they are investigating why it took so long for information about the incident to get reported to university police.